One of our local doctors blogs about medical matters and has appeared on national radio from time to time, and so given the prominence of the NHS in the news lately I thought it might be interesting to talk to him and work it into an article; in fact, our phone conversation yesterday ended up concentrating on an initiative the surgery is starting, but we'll have a more general health-related discussion at some point soon. I decided I'd better record the conversation so I didn't miss anything: the last time I did something along these lines it was an interview with an Italian couple who'd moved into the parish about their experience of being migrants, and reassembling what they'd told me from my notes was no easy matter. Did they really say the UK should leave the EU to stop the country being overrun by Muslims? I wasn't expecting that. Anyway.
I listened back to the interview to write up the article. To my discomfort, my expressions of interest and enthusiasm, so well meant at the time, came across as somebody taking the mickey rather than anything else. "Oo YES! Oo REALLY?" I must be a truly terrible person. I try to be nice and end up sounding sarcastic. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks ... There's something to meditate on this Lent!
Yeah, right - I can tell from your blog what a truly terrible person you are. I'll check back with you after Lent and see if you're still a such a horror...
ReplyDeleteOn a different and possibly more sensible note - I'd be interested in a view from you about the difference between "meditate" and "contemplate," if that doesn't sound too dry a topic for your blog.
My observation wasn't entirely self-lacerating, I was just struck by how ridiculous I sounded: I do, though, have a tendency to a bitter humour which isn't that good a thing. A few years ago there was a radio comedy called 'Don't Start' written by Frank Skinner which had him and Katherine Parkinson as a long-term couple who had clearly had all their arguments many times over but now and again introduced unexpected elements. One occasion, she called attention to the grotesque faces he pulled while shaving and alleging that they 'reveal your inner evil'. That idea has always stuck with me, especially shaving.
DeleteI would have thought meditation is the more active process. You have an idea, a thought, an image, perhaps something as complex as a Bible passage, and turn it over in your mind, prayerfully examining it. Contemplation is when you sit and mentally look at that thing, and it looks at you. That's nice, you think.
H'mm. Thanks. I'll think on't. In either or both modes.
DeleteSometimes, I find, pushing too hard - from the best of motives - goes over the edge a bit, and rather than revealing any inner evil, it just sounds inauthentic. Or as Ms Confounded puts it, "you're just trying too hard again."
I doubt that they sounds sarcastic to him at the time.
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